Best/Quietest 400W+ PS = Zalman w/ L1A mod?

Lord09 · Post by **Lord09** » Mon Mar 22, 2004 4:42 pm

Hello all,

I'm gonna be building a dual AMD system, so I'll need at least 400W+ to be safe.

It seems that the Seasonics are having all kinds of problems. Would a Zalman PS w/ a L1A mod be the most quiet 400W PS? And more importantly, would this mod be safe and sufficient to cool the PS properly? Also, has anyone ever performed this mod? Any crazy hacking or soldering invovled?

If anyone has any other recommendations for a quiet PS, I'd love to hear it.

Also, does anyone know the difference between the newer B series versus the older A series? Is one more desirable than the other?

Thanks,

DP

sthayashi · Post by **sthayashi** » Mon Mar 22, 2004 5:03 pm

By the numbers, the B series seems to be better, so I would go for that given the choice. As for the question of, "Has anyone ever performed this mod?" The answer is, ARM systems does this. I've asked them to just sell the power supply, but sadly they don't. Anyways, my feeling on it is that if it's good enough for them, then it's good enough for me.

If you don't plan on having too many drives, a possible alternative is the Nexus NX-3500, a 350W power supply. It's had a lot of good reviews here. I don't know what kind of dual AMD system you're planning, but to give you a reference, my system draws 240 Watts running two instances of F@H (and I have 4 hard drives).

Lord09 · Post by **Lord09** » Mon Mar 22, 2004 6:02 pm

I'm gonna be running a smiliar system with two Mobile XPs, 2 HDs and a 9700 or 9800 Pro ( whatever I decide to keep ) and 1 DVDRW.

Do you think the Nexus would be adequate? I'd probably similar or slightly less power. I'm sure Nexus has enough power, but I'd worry that it would be overly stressed and ramp up the fan speed excessively....

Thanks for the feedback though.

I wonder how hard it is to do the fan mod... anyone from ARM care to answer?

sthayashi · Post by **sthayashi** » Mon Mar 22, 2004 6:14 pm

Well, the difference is that I'm NOT running Mobile XPs. And I also have a G400 instead of an ATI.

The Nexus ramping would be my biggest concern as well, and probably the one thing that would keep me from getting it (whenever I decide I can afford that upgrade). The upshot is that it's a lot cheaper than the Zalman and you won't void your warranty.

smifou · Post by **smifou** » Tue Apr 06, 2004 7:43 am

hey lord.. thats the mod i did except with an even more low flow papst 80ngl.. everythings seems fine and its incredibly more silent. just worrying about how hot it can get more now...

SometimesWarrior · Post by **SometimesWarrior** » Tue Apr 06, 2004 4:25 pm

What about modding the Enermax NoiseTaker 475W PSU? It's got more power than you'll ever need, it's very efficient, and its fan control circuit is well-designed. Just put a low-noise fan in and you'll have a great, near-silent PSU! Since you're building a dualie system, there's no reason to pinch pennies on the PSU.

Lord09 · Post by **Lord09** » Tue Apr 06, 2004 6:52 pm

Yea, the Enermax looks really good, not a fan of the color, but not too important.

What kind of fan mod would every suggest? It's a dual fan setup. Does anyone know if the two fans would plug directly into the PSU or is soldering required ( I can't )? Or I could always just run the fans indepent of the fan controller circuitry and run them at 5V and pray the work okay...

DP

smifou · Post by **smifou** » Sun Apr 18, 2004 12:23 pm

thats the mod i did except with a papst 80ngl. the psu is so silent now

i have the zalman 400a though

toiletduckuk · Post by **toiletduckuk** » Thu Apr 22, 2004 1:26 am

Not sure if my Zalman is a or b, but before you replace the fan try undervolting it - running it at 7v it's far quieter and runs at 44c. For me this is just a short term solution 'till i can get a batch of panaflos, but it's not bad